Rear Battery Boxes...Beginnings

This post covers work on April 25 and 26. Before the weekend I made a trip to Harbor Freight to purchase a chop saw and a sandblaster (to be used later). You can't beat Harbor Freight for great prices on tools. I also acquired enough steel to complete the rear battery racks from a local steel contractor. My last big purchase was a welder from Craig's List. Now I just need to learn how to weld! :) Luckily my son's friend is a very good welder.

I hammered together 4 rectangular pieces of wood in the exact size of the batteries that I am going to purchase to assist in making the racks. After working the details out on graph paper, I began cutting the angle iron and flat stock for the bases of the racks. The first series of photos show the rack that will be behind the rear axle and under the truck bed. The cut pieces are laid out on the floor in the way they will be welded together. This rack will hold 8 batteries. After these pieces were cut, I moved on to the racks that will be in front of the rear axle and behind the truck cab. These will also be under the truck bed. By putting the batteries under the truck bed, I will retain the use of the bed. You never know what you may want to carry in a pickup truck.

The front left and right battery racks will hold 6 batteries apiece. They will be positioned on either side of the drive shaft. The plan is to support these racks with square steel stock running across the frame of the truck.

Still moving forward toward completion. I can't wait to drive this truck on a daily basis. More steel to cut and lots of welding in my future. Stay tuned right here for more EV conversion fun!

Distributed Charging Solution

This post will cover the installation of my home charging station. The type of charging solution I chose is a distributed charging solution. This means that each charger will charge 2 6volt batteries. 24 batteries, 12 chargers. The chargers that I chose are Samlex 1215A 3 stage chargers. They complete their charging cycle with a float stage and can be left connected without worry of overcharging. A distributed charging solution is more battery friendly. As a battery pack ages, batteries develop voltage differences. A single pack charger cannot take these into consideration. If a battery must be replaced this causes more issues with a single charger. This is why I chose this solution.
I began with 2 pieces of 1/2 inch plywood which I painted green. I just happened to have a gallon of leftover paint which worked well. The color was not too obnoxious. Next I anchored these to the concrete block wall with anchors, 6 per board. I then made measurements to mount the chargers on the boards and began to attach them with 4 wood screws each. On the 120v side, there were 2 new 20A circuits added to the breaker box. (Of course all 120v wiring was done by a licensed electrician) Each circuit feeds an on/off switch that feeds 6 outlets. Once all the chargers were mounted and plugged in to ac outlets, I began running the 12v wiring to a barrier strip. There will need to be a total of 13 wires running to a plug that will plug into the truck where the gas cap used to be. The photos show the completed wiring. The barrier strip will be connected to a length of wires (13 wires ) to a cannon plug. This has not been started yet and will be done at a later date. More to come....keep moving forward.

Installing gauges

It is the weekend of March 14th after a relatively lucky Friday the 13th. My task for this weekend is/was to install the voltmeter and the ammeter gauges. The voltmeter reads from 115v-175v dc. The truck will be powered by 24 (6 volt) golf cart batteries for a total system voltage of 144v. The ammeter reads from 0-500amps. There is a meter shunt installed in the motor controller so the gauge is only getting 0-50 milliamps. Not sure I would want 400 amps going through my dashboard anyway. :) (unless you are cooking a chicken, and I am not!) I began by readying the light kits and installing them into the gauges. The bulb is held in the end of a short white tube with a drop of glue. I used superglue. Then the tube slides into the opening for the light. A small blob of silicone rtv to hold it in place. Next is the wiring and tie wrapping and drilling some access holes in the a-pillar. The gauges fit very snug in the pod and are held in place by the tight fit. Four holes are drilled through the pod and the pillar, then plastic fasteners hold the pod to the pillar. I then put the pillar/pod assembly on the dash and fed all the wiring through an opening under the pillar. Time now to move the assembly into place and then snap in the fasteners. The photos show the finished product. More time was spent with my head up the dash connecting wires to and fro, hither and yon. I tapped into the dimmer switch wire for the gauge lighting. Ammeter wires to the shunt in the controller, voltmeter wires to where HV+ and HV- will be under the hood. A short test verified the gauge lights worked and dimmed with the other dash lights. All good. Alas, I won't be able to test the actual gauge functions until I have batteries. There is much work ahead. Left to complete are the rear battery boxes, tilt bed, charging system, install and wire batteries, high voltage wiring, and testing. Then there is painting and cosmetics. Whew! I am going to keep moving forward. Until next time...

Completing the Vacuum Reservoir

Upon returning from Home Depot, I broke out the pvc glue and went to town. The new reservoir would have a piece of 2" pvc in the center. This allows the entire contraption to fit nicely in front of the battery box and behind the vertical bracket that the power steering cooling assembly was attached to. I drilled and tapped the end cap with the 2 hose barbs as before. Once the glue was dry, I showed it to my son and introduced it as the "Sword of Doom" from World of Warcraft. He plays the game, but somehow the humor was lost somewhere in the whole swinging it around and laughing a wicked laugh. Oh well. Back in reality, I installed it and connected the two hoses as seen in the photos. The 3/8" hose goes to a "T" that connects to the pump and pressure switch, the other side connects to the power brake booster. The 1/4" hose connects to a coupler that runs through the firewall to the hvac controls. All done less the test. I slowly turned the key to the "on" position and waited with anticipation for the pump to kick off. After about 30 seconds, it stopped. I ran the hvac control through all the positions, listening for the change in airflow through the vents. All good. Then a couple of test pushes on the brake pedal. All good. It took a few times before the pump kicked on again. I think I can sign this one off.....done.....now to keep moving forward!

Battery rack, Vacuum Reservoir Installation

Well... I am nearly caught up to current events with my S-10 conversion. One more post after this one and everyone will be up to date. This work was done the first week in March and begins with the repair and attachment of the flaps between the engine compartment and the wheel wells. One was in good shape, a few tie wraps in choice spots and re-attach with new plastic fasteners. The other side was in pieces. I used a rubber exercise mat and traced it and cut out a new flap. Punched holes and attached. I think it will work fine. Next is the battery rack installation. The front battery rack will hold 4 6volt golf cart batteries. The rack was made by Mark Hazen of http://www.evhelp.com/. He does a very nice welding and painting job on his battery racks. I also really like the hold down straps on the top of the rack. This one fit well into the space where the radiator used to be. My remaining 20 batteries will be in battery racks under the truck bed. That project is coming up soon. Stay tuned right here for all the details!
I positioned the battery rack and marked the spots where the holes would be drilled for mounting. There is a small shelf on which the radiator sat. It is to this shelf the battery rack was bolted. There are also 2 upper supports that attach just over the lip of the steel shelf just below where the hood would close. After the holes were drilled, I bolted the rack in place. Not bad, that is done. Onward!
There are a couple of schools of thought on using a reservoir to expand the vacuum storage for the power brakes and the air control (changes the vent positions when moving the selector from air to heat to vent, etc..). The first is to connect the pump directly to the power brakes and vent control. The second is to build a reservoir to extend the time between run cycles of the pump. Both work equally well for functionality. I chose the second. My reasons? It was inexpensive and I thought it would be cool to have. Unfortunately, I had to go through 2 iterations before I got it right. The photos in this post show the first attempt. My next post will show the finished product installed. I found the perfect place to install the reservoir, just forward of the battery box. I used a length of 3" pvc and 2 caps. I drilled and tapped in 2 hose barbs, one 3/8 and the other 1/4. I was going to use the entire 3 feet, but it would not fit properly due to a bracket in the way. So, I cut it off and assembled it, then connected all the hoses. After firing up the pump, I had leaks! Turns out the hose barbs were too small for the automotive type vacuum hose, even though they were both 3/8". I had an idea at this point on how to make the reservoir larger and solve the hissing air issue. A trip to Home Depot was in order. The next post will show and tell the completed vacuum system. Cheers!

Low voltage wiring

I can't wait to ride the new Small World ride....oops wrong blog, sorry! The date was 2-14-09 and it was time to begin running wires. I started with the wires to actuate the main contactor, ground and +12 to the pot plate. Next were the wires between the control box and the motor controller. More wires to the pot plate and run 2 wires from the ammeter shunt to the firewall entry opening. I needed to find some key switched 12v for the vacuum pump and the control circuits. I used the old fuel pump circuit for the vacuum pump and a wire at the windshield wiper motor for the other switched 12v. This one was suggested to me by Mark Hazen and worked well. You probably get the picture by now...lots of wires going all over the place. I attempted to use different colors for everything in order to keep organized. The dc to dc converter was the next item to be wired and finishing up with the vacuum pump wiring and relay. When everything was run, I used split flex tubing and tie wraps to make everything nice and neat. You may notice a large mass of wires in a couple places in the photos close to the firewall and low. These are the wires that previously went to the engine and all the sensors. I cut all these wires off and tucked them back into the flex tubing, adding a little electrical tape over the spot. Photos of this to come in a later post. Good progress under the hood...more to come! Keep moving forward!

Lots of progress!!

Welcome to the weekend of 2/8/09! A very productive one indeed. The first few photos show the motor with all the mounts secured and the vertical steel brackets for the motor controller and the dc to dc converter. Next up was the mounting of the main contactor electrical box. I mounted this to the firewall as seen in the photo. The main contactor is mounted to the box by drilling 2 holes in the top and inserting the contactor bolts through the holes and using the attached nuts to secure it. I had some help and advice with this from Mark Hazen at http://www.evhelp.com/ Check it out! And while I am giving credit, a lot of my S-10 conversion is patterned after his S-10 conversion, and he has been a tremendous help as I have progressed. The motor controller and control box I am using are manufactured by Mark.
Next, I put on the cover of the main contactor box and attached the control box to this. This is complete until wiring begins. The motor controller was then mounted to the vertical steel bracket on the passenger side. Moving across to the other bracket, I mounted the dc to dc converter. I set the battery rack in the truck to look at clearances and all looks well. I will mount this at a later date. I then mounted the pot plate using a metal bracket to the a/c housing. Throttle cable connected, ready to go. Last but not least, I mounted the vacuum pump as shown in the last photo. The pump will enable me to keep my power brakes. None of the hoses were run at this time, I am saving this for another time. Whew! I accomplished quite a bit...time to take a break!!